CHAPTER 26
Cause-related marketing: who
cares wins
SUE ADKINS
Introduction
Over seven years ago, when the cause-related
marketing campaign at Business in the Com-
munity^1 was set up, few companies were aware
of cause-related marketing or understood it.
Fewer still were practising it. Today the situa-
tion is very different. The purpose of this
chapter is to provide an understanding of
cause-related marketing. Cause-related market-
ing will be defined and set in context, provid-
ing an outline of the business case and evidence
from the marketing perspective. Case studies
will be used to illustrate cause-related market-
ing and identify some of the critical success
factors in developing effective programmes.
Finally, guiding principles and processes will
be provided to support readers in developing
their own strategies and programmes.
Business in the Community, through its
cause-related marketing campaign, has been
the key provider of research, resource, guide-
lines and information on cause-related market-
ing since 1995. This body of work and Cause
Related Marketing: Who Cares Wins (Adkins,
1999a) are the key resources drawn on for this
chapter.Cause-related marketing defined
Cause-related marketing is not a new concept.
Examples exist from as early as the 1890s, for
example, when William Heskith Lever intro-
duced schemes on Sunlight Soap and a variety
of charities in the USA (Adkins, 1999a, Chapter
2). Although not referred to as cause-related
marketing at the time, these early examples
demonstrated the commercial link between a
charity and a business for mutual benefit. They
also identify core components of today’s effec-
tive cause-related marketing programmes,
namely a win for business, a win for the cause
or charity and a win for the consumer.(^1) Business in the Community is a unique movement of
companies across the UK committed to improving con-
tinually their positive impact on society, with a core
membership of over 700 companies, including 77 per cent
of the FTSE 100. The cause-related marketing campaign
was initially set up and funded by Sir Dominic Cadbury
and Cadbury Schweppes, and led by Sue Adkins. The
purpose of the campaign was to define cause-related
marketing, develop the business case and to establish it as
a marketing strategy in the UK. For further information,
please see http://www.bitc.org.uk and http://www.crm.org.uk